Local charter school opponents looking for signs the state Board of Education will vacate its approval of the planned new Gloucester Community Arts School heard little indication of it at the board’s meeting today in City Hall's Kyrouz Auditorium.
In a characteristically quiet performance, the majority of education board members sat and listed as a lawyer hired by the state told them the standard for revoking the Gloucester Community Arts Charter School based on misrepresentations in the application was very high.
No vote was taken and no board members gave any indication of how they would act on the issue when they next meet in the more familiar confines of the state education offices in Malden.
For those dozens of charter opponents who stayed for the more than two hours of legal parsing on what has been a hot-button emotional issue here, the board seemed to offer little.
"I was not encouraged that there will be the self-reflection necessary that the board may have made an error in approving this charter school," said Jason Grow, the outgoing city councilor who has been among those leading the push for the board to revisit the charter. The board's February approval of the charter school has come under intense fire due to perceived flaws in the approval process, and even Gov. Deval Patrick has called for the board to reconsider.
Grow expressed concern that the legal advice seemed to focus only on the charter application -- not the flawed state process.
"By limitiing themselves to only the application," he said, "they are leaving themselves an out -- and we are ultimately going to be left with this school."
Prior to the more than two-hour hearing, dozens of Gloucester parents and others decrying the granting of the charter marched in front of City Hall. The protest, organized in large part by parent and charter school foe Jane Cunningham, drew the attention of state Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester, who spoke briefly to the crowd from the City Hall steps, then chatted with and answered questions from some of the demonstrators individually.
Demonstrators chanted "CSO said no go," — a reference to the fact that the state's Charter School Office had recommended against approval of the Gloucester charter — and "We won't take your bitter pill." That was a reference to the now-infamous e-mail from Paul Reville, Gov. Deval Patrick's education secretary, to Chester that acknowledged approving the Gloucester charter school would be a "bitter pill," but that one of the three charter applications had to be approved to advance the governor's education "agenda," and avoid alienating traditional supporters such as The Boston Globe and The Boston Foundation.
The e-mail noted that the Gloucester application as essentially the one to approve by default; charter proposals for Waltham and a Central Mass. regional school did not gain approval.The e-mail, sent days before Chester announced his recommendation for a Gloucester charter approval despite his own staff's recommendation against it, was obtained by the Times and first reported Sept. 19.
Today's hearing allotted proponents and foes of the Gloucester charter school allotted 30 minutes each, and state board members weighing the panel's options at this point. The charter has been granted, and members of the Gloucester Community Arts charter School Board are going ahead with plans to open next September; many opponents, however, are now urging that the charter be revoked due to the flawed approval process.
For full story and photo coverage, look to Monday's print and online editions of the Gloucester Daily Times and gloucestertimes.com. For photos of today's hearing and demonstration, look later tonight to the SmugMug photo section on the home page of gloucestertimes.com
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